Means employed in indexing systems.



O. G. PICKETT. MEANS EMPLOYED IN INDEXING SYSTEMS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR.12,1913.

1,106,158. Patented Aug. 4, 1914.

2 SIIEETS- SHEET 1.

WITNESSES INVENTOR nnrrnn s'ra'rns PATENT OFFICE.

MEANS EMPLOYED IN INDEXING SYSTEMS.

T 0 all whom "it may concern:

Be it known that I, OGREN GORDON Flexn'rr, a citizen of the United States, reslding at Jefferson City, in the county of Cole and State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Means Employed in Indexing Systems, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to improvements in indexing systems, and is especially applicable for use in connection with dictionaries, directories, etc.

The object of the invention is the provision of means by which a word or name may be located with facility in the dictionary or directory, after the alphabetical division or vocabulary of the word has been found. In.

this manner the invention becomes an aid and agency in saving time and labor of the student or other person in looking up a word or name in the dictionary or directory.

The invention consists in equipping each vocabulary or alphabetical division of .the book with an independent and separate system of perforations in the leaves of the vocabulary, extending from the initial page to the last page, as will be hereinafter more specifically pointed out, for the purpose above described.

In the accompanying drawings I have illustrated so much of a dictionary as is necessary to indicate a complete example of the physical embodiment of my invention constructed and arranged according to the best mode I have so far devised for the practical applications of the invention, and a modified adaptation of the invention is also exemplified in the drawings.

Figure 1 is a view in perspective showing a dictionary with the usual alphabetical index, and also equipped with the auxiliary or supplemental index of the present invention. Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic view of the book, closed, at the location of the arrow in Fig. 1 and looking in the direction of the arrow, a portion of the book represented as broken away for convenience of illustration. Figs. 3 and 4 represent two pages in the B vocabulary and are illustrated as an exemplification of the system of locating a word. Fig. 5 shows a modified form of the invention applied to a leaf from a book.

While I have illustrated my invention adapted for use in connection with a dietionary, and shall hereinafter refer to the Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed March 12, 1913.

Patented Au". 4, 1914.

Serial No. 753,796.

book as a dictionary, it will of course be understood that the invention applies equally as well to other books arranged in vocabularies or alphabetical sections or divisions, such as directories and record books of various kinds.

The dictionary 1 has the usual thumb index as indicated at 2 dividing the book into vocabularies or alphabetical divisions, and for the purpose of illustrating the invention I have shown the book open at the initial page of the vocabulary E, in Fig. 1. Upon the first page of the division 1*], near the edge of the leaf, are arranged a plurality of holes or openings 3, spaced at regular intervals and providing room between the openings for printed matter.

For a clear and simple understanding of the invention, assuming there are twenty six leaves including the initial leaf 4 in the E vocabulary or division, the leaf I is provided with a series of twenty five holes indicated by the numeral 3. Then each succeeding leaf declines in the number of openings, until the twenty-fifth leaf has one opening, as shown at 5 in the D vocabulary in Fig. 1, and the last or twenty'sixth leaf as 6 is not perforated at all. This arrange ment of perforations forms a series of holes as indicated at 3' in Fig. 2, each hole increasing in depth toward the back of the book, and the holes arranged along the margin of the leaves.

Referring now to Figs. 3 and 4: a specific application of the invention is exemplified. The leaves 7 and 8 are taken from the B vocabulary, and the leaf 7 may be the initial or first leaf of the B division. Under each succeeding opening or perforation 3, syllables are alphabetically arranged, as for instance ag, and, can, ear, icus, lame, le, Ii, 10, loo, lue. Now it is desired to find the word band a combination of the initial letter B and the syllable and. The dictionary is first opened, of course by the use of the thumb index to the initial page of the B vocabulary. An instrument as 9, which may be a wooden pointer, adapted to pass into the perforations or holes 3, is grasped in the hand, and inserted into the perforation under the ag syllable and over the and syllable. The pointer passes through the second perforation on the first page and the first perforation on the second page, and as there is no alining perforation on the third page which is designated 8 in Fig. 4:, the pointer is stopped. Now by turning over these two pages or leaves through which the pointer is passed, the third page will be disclosed, and at the bottom of the page the word band appears, together with its definition. Thus from the initial page, the instrument or pointer may be inserted and passed through perforations corresponding to a specific syllable, to locate a word comprising the initial. letter and the specific syllable.

In Fig. 5 instead of perforations, I illustrate the use of slots 10 in the leaf 11. In using the index in this modified form, the pencil is laid with its point in the slot against the desired leaf, then by inserting the end of the pointer under the last undesired page or leaf the section of the vocabulary preceding that desired, may be turned to disclose the Word wanted.

From the above description, it is believed the procedure in looking up any other word will be clearly understood, and it is evident that the supplemental or auxiliary index will furnish a thoroughly reliable and satisfactory quick reference aid for one seeking a word in the dictionary.

Having thusv described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is In a dictionary vocabulary, an initial indexed leaf having a series of spaced perforations arranged near its outer margin and alphabetically arranged Word syllables printed adjacent the spaced perforations, and each succeeding leaf of the vocabulary formed with registering perforations in decreasing arithmetical progression which provide unobstructed holes in the leaves of successively increasing depth, whereby an instrument may be entered in a hole and will contact with a leaf bearing the word-syllable corresponding with a word-syllable on the initial leaf adjacent the hole.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

OGREN GORDON PICKETTM Witnesses L. C. LQHMAN, P. P. SCHMIDT.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents.

Washington, D. G. 

